KEITH Brown says he wants to use his first cabinet secretary level post on the economy separate from the finance role “to address more profoundly some of the long-term issues in the Scottish economy”.

The one-time marine turned MSP for Clackmannanshire and Dunblane was appointed in May to the then newly created post of cabinet secretary for economy, jobs and fair work following the election, having previously served in the Scottish Cabinet covering infrastructure, investment and cities.

In an interview conducted at St Andrews House in August, Keith Brown says top of his in-tray in the role is the skills and enterprise review the Scottish Government is currently undertaking aimed at “making sure you have the right kind of skills mix, making sure we can make further progress on productivity which is an issue.

“We have made progress since 2007 but neither Scotland nor the UK is where it should be in terms of productivity,” he says.

He wants, he says, to continue the work he was doing previously on infrastructure, driving forward big projects like the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and the new Forth crossing, improving transport links.

“It stands to reason if you have better transport links you have greater productive potential in the economy.”

He stresses the importance of encouraging innovation which he says John Swinney did a lot of work on in the last Parliament, and exports.

He says: “We really have to increase the extent to which we export, especially micro businesses and small and medium-sized companies.

“That’s the real benefit, bringing new money into the economy when you export.”

However, as I point out, exports have been going backward with the latest available figures – for 2014 published in January this year – amounting to £27.5bn, a fall of 3.2 per cent on 2013 excluding oil and gas exports.

“That’s going to feature very strongly in the review that we’re undertaking,” he says.

“The flip side to that is in terms of FDI we’re doing extremely well so how we can transplant, translate that success in terms of foreign direct investment to encouraging companies sometimes to think about for the first time how they go about exporting and try and demystify it.

“There’s some great work for example the Scotch Whisky Association does a kind of mentoring thing with other businesses.

“But I think it’s down to us. That’s got to involve the UK Government who’ve got to get actively involved in this rather than standing pointing from the sidelines at the Scottish economy.”

But would foreign direct investment not be hit by the prospect of Brexit?

Brown says that he had spoken to a company that morning that is headquartered in Scotland but with a large international business.

“They were saying that one of the investments they expected to happen in the Midlands might not now happen because of Brexit, Frankfurt might be a better option for them.

“So the information so far is anecdotal.”

He says the pound being lower against the dollar and euro after and since the Brexit vote presents opportunities.

But he stresses that what is needed is a culture change to encourage entrepreneurship and to get Scotland making more and selling more around the world.

“I think back in 1917 Scotland was the last recorded country to be the wealthiest country in the world per capita and then it has been the United States since.

“That was built on huge industries like shipbuilding, obviously things have changed dramatically since then but we need to get back to building and making things for the rest of the world.”

Business organisations in Scotland have been calling for a business rate cut to help tackle the effects of Brexit.

I ask Brown if he is sympathetic to that.

“There is a review going on just now both in terms of business rates themselves and in terms of the Small Business Bonus Scheme which in my view has been extremely successful,” he says.

He says that in his constituency of Clackmannanshire and Dunblane offices are hard to find for rent in the town centres which wasn’t the case five or six years ago.

He says figures show that this is repeated across the country and puts a lot of that down to the impact of the Small Business Bonus Scheme.

Brown cites an Office of Budget Responsibility report suggesting that infrastructure spending was the most effective way in which to both provide reassurance to business and to generate economic activity.

He says: “That both vindicates what we’ve done over the past five or six years, both in terms of finding money to help with capital projects but also underlies the First Minister’s focus on accelerating capital works.

“We had that announcement last week and we are still working on what further we can do.

“So on business rates: we’ve heard what the business community has said and we’re looking at that both in terms of possibly amending the Small Business Bonus Scheme but also looking at business rates more generally and at the same time looking to invest in our infrastructure and accelerate capital spending where we can.

“If you take the post-Brexit environment, the big issues seem to be business confidence; work streams for some of the larger companies involved in capital works is also important and the obvious point to make is that it feeds through to the economy.

“So if you’ve got a thousand folk working on the new Queensferry Crossing they’re spending money in the local economy and that feeds through the economy.

“So those are the things we’re focusing on but we’re not unaware of the need to look at business rates which is why the First Minister has announced the review.”

When will the projects to get funding under the £100m capital acceleration project be announced?

“We have a very long list of projects we’re looking at but the thing is to establish the criteria and that is down to things like how quickly can they be brought on stream, what is the geographical spread of those and how many jobs do they actually involve,” he says.

“One of the attractive ones is the idea of works on roads – I don’t mean roads projects but bringing roads up to the required standard – it’s something that can be upscaled quite quickly, it’s labour intensive and has an immediate economic impact.

“But we’re also looking within the heath sector, within the further and higher education sector at what other projects could be brought forward.”

The first project to be brought forward under the £100m Capital Acceleration programme is a £5m investment aimed at expanding services at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire.

It will aim to increase service for ‘in demand’ specialities particularly radiology, ophthalmology and general surgery.

What concerns are you hearing from businesses?

“First of all the uncertainty,” he says.

“ UK ministers don’t even know which questions to ask, there seems to be a complete lack of preparedness for what Brexit might look like and that is feeding itself into those making decisions in the economy.

“If they don’t feel that the political class that has led them to this point has a grip on it then that obviously provides for some uncertainty.

“And so I think the best antidote to that is to maintain the best we can the economic activity that is going on and encourage more economic activity.”

One of the big implications for business, he says, is the effect on workers from other EU countries.

“We’ve got huge numbers of people working in the Scottish economy – not least on infrastructure projects – from elsewhere in the EU and further afield.”

He says that there is a concern that workers from other EU countries working on capital projects may tend to drift away.

“And the worry is that they will take that decision prematurely and they will take it from the places they feel to be more secure.

“So that’s one of the worries that has been expressed to me from the business community.”

He continues: “Will there be tariffs coming in at the end of this that will have a major effect?

“Will a company that is from the rest of the EU and further afield view the UK differently as a prospect when they want to comply with European standards and sell into the European market?

“Those are the kind of fears that I’ve heard expressed. Also you will have seen the various surveys and reports that have talked about a downturn into expectations for recruitment.”

Are there any positive opportunities for Scottish business and the Scottish economy from leaving and are there particular initiatives that you are undertaking to capitalise on these?

Brown says that he has been talking to all the major financial companies following the Brexit vote.

“We’re very keen to hear from them where they think the opportunities are.

“There always will be opportunities, there’s no doubt about.

“But we should be alive to the fact that the Scottish Government’s view and the people of Scotland’s view is that we should stay within the EU - they very firmly believe that.”

But he says the situation is changing.

“We have a reducing exchange rate and there are opportunities in relation to that.

“For the Leave campaign the difficulty is that they have expressed many of the opportunities as the ability to get preferential or quicker trade deals but they are not in a position to do that until after Brexit is completed.

“So some of the opportunities that they have said are there can’t be exploited at this stage.

“However it is our duty to look at whatever opportunities there can be so that’s going to be a dialogue between ourselves and businesses.”

He stresses that he is keen to hear from businesses on their views and where they see opportunities.

“One of the businesses I have been talking to has a fairly small presence in China and a slightly larger one in India and we’ve said we’d be more than happy to work with them – we have a presence in both those countries – to try and expand that.

“Any business environment is always going to present opportunities as well as threats and I think it is down to us to make sure that we help businesses exploit those opportunities wherever possible.”

Does he think leaving the EU might provide opportunities to cut ‘red tape’ for business and simplify procurement with the public sector?

“First of all I think there’s been a great deal done.

“I had responsibility for procurement immediately prior to the election.

“There’s been a great deal done, there’s a lot been going through Parliament on EU law being transposed into both Scottish and UK law which I think makes it easier in many cases for businesses.

“The portal we have, for example, for companies to be able to access contracts is a big step forward.

“That I think is something of a cliché this huge red tape and maybe that’s reinforced by the fact that I’ve not had any representations since Brexit saying that ‘if we stop doing this…’ but there might be something in a couple of years’ time.

“On the one hand what I would like to see is that if businesses feel there are inhibitions or obstacles which we don’t need to have then both myself, [finance secretary] Derek Mackay and [rural economy secretary] Fergus Ewing want to be very clear: we want to hear from businesses.

“For our part we want to stay in the EU so it makes no sense to me to talk about reducing the standards we apply.

“We’ve benefitted hugely from EU measures say for example those on water quality and things like that.

“So it wouldn’t be right to start to work down the standards we have now reached in terms of compliance with the EU procurement and contract law and so on.

“But, we remain, as I say, willing to hear from any business on these issues.”

Your political opponents and some people in business are saying the prospect of a second independence referendum is the last thing we need because it adds to the uncertainty.

What is your view on that?

“First I’m not getting that.

“The company this morning I was speaking to, for example, they didn’t raise that – they were talking about Brexit.

“I’m not raising it specifically with them.

“The First Minister has made it clear that there are a number of options to try and protect Scotland’s position.

“I think that’s the way to do it, not to be dogmatic.

“What we’re seeing instead from our opponents, particularly the Conservatives, I think is a calculated attempt to talk up that uncertainty to distract from the uncertainty created by Brexit, which is a dangerous game to play.

“Because there are two governments involved in the economy in Scotland. We’re one of them and the UK Government’s the other.

“So to have the Tories continually say these things, well, they’re part of the Scottish economy, there are things that they can do rather than want to stand and criticise.

“To try and put your head in the sand and pretend Brexit and the uncertainty created by it isn’t there and the only uncertainty is the possibility of a future Scottish referendum which has not yet been called.

“That’s not enough to help the Scottish economy and we’ll have a bigger impact, a beneficial impact if we can have a constructive approach from the Scotland Office and the Tories here in Holyrood.”